The Hand
by Chabon
Summary: Short story about Bill, the lowly peasant, and his desires for rebellion. If anyone likes it, more chapters to come!


Disclaimer: I don't own Warcraft or Blizzard or anything of that nature, though I wouldn't mind inheriting some of it!!

Bill was constantly being prodded and poked around by a floating Hand. He wondered where exactly the Hand came from, and why it decided to ruin his life. One day he left his home and family, than was suddenly being bossed around by some airborne limb. He wouldn't have obeyed it; but at the same time, it seemed to have control over the local armies. "Obey the Hand or die, obey the Hand or die." He still shuddered at the memory of that day the army cornered him, with the Hand hovering contentedly behind them.

He was drafted into the army and sent to a far-away land, without even a chance for a goodbye to his family. He and four other draftees were led over a small mountain and through some dense forest to a clearing in the trees, where there was a gold mine. The draftees all seemed pretty friendly, yet quite angry about being forced to obey the Hand. When their small party reached the location, they built a town hall and began grabbing gold from the mine, just as the Hand told them to.

When the Hand was there, Bill felt like he was being watched by some all-knowing, all-powerful Being, and the Hand did the Being's will. It pushed around Bill, pointing to harvest this or build that, and it never thanked him for his efforts.

Over time, Bill grew angry with the Hand. Nonstop orders never made anyone happy, and Bill noticed himself developing a slight desire for rebellion. He realized if he alone rebelled, he would easily be killed by one of the nearby footmen, but if he could get enough of the others to rebel with him…

So Bill decided to talk to Stan, who was a peasant just like him. Stan never seemed to care what the Hand ordered him to do, he just willingly did it. However, Bill knew that Stan was slowly getting fed up with the Hand and its constant commands to everyone. Just when Bill made his way over to Stan to whisper his ideas, the town bell rang.

"Prepare for battle! The orcs are coming!" James, the hero of the town, bellowed. There was a rustle of metal as everyone went to their positions and became alert for the oncoming army. The Hand hovered over Bill and his fellow peasants, ordering them to grab their armor and pick-axes.

At this moment, rebellion was squashed out of Bill's mind. He couldn't rebel, his town needed him, no matter how much he despised the Hand. Bill grabbed his battle gear and ran blindly against the nearest ogre. The Hand floated over the battle, directing the soldiers who to attack.

Bill dodged the fierce swing of an ogre's axe when he noticed something, _another Hand!_ Only this one was ordering the orcs what to do. Even though their breath reeked of onions, and they probably didn't care for him at all, Bill developed a respect for orcs at that moment. They had to put up with an annoying Hand just as he did!

The humans drove off the orcs that day, with a surprisingly small number of casualties. Bill was back to taking orders from the Hand, back to mindless work. Even though rebellion had been lifted from his thoughts for a moment; it had soon entered back in when he was ordered to build a barracks by himself, by himself!

'_By myself!' _Bill angrily thought to himself, as he gathered the lumber and other necessities needed for the barracks. _'The nerve of that dang Hand! It couldn't just order any other peasant to help me out! Man, this is gonna take forever!' _Bill never voiced any of these thoughts to the Hand though, all he said to it was "Alright," or, "I guess I can."

Bill worked all day and all night on the barracks, hardly talking to anyone else around the camp. As he worked, he went over many rebellion ideas in his head, each crazier then the last. He wondered if he could wrestle the Hand to the ground and kill it, or perhaps steal a rifleman's gun and shoot it down. While all these ideas seemed tantalizingly sweet to the lowly peasant that is our hero, none seemed credible. The Hand seemed to be able to move rather quickly; and although it was just a floating limb, it seemed to have quite a bit of intelligence.

Bill finished the barracks, proud of his work. He went to sit down up against a tree when almost immediately, the Hand grabbed his attention and commanded him to begin chopping down trees. "Why don't YOU chop down those trees, you jerk Hand!" Bill yelled before he could stop himself.

Several people in the town stopped what they were doing. Peasants stopped chopping and mining, children quit playing, and the town drunk stopped staggering around. The Hand slowly crept up to where Bill was standing on his legs that decided they didn't want to move. It did not speak, but it did get closer to the ground then Bill had ever seen it. For a brief moment, Bill thought he was going to be slapped, what else could this Hand do? Then it hovered around his back, picked him up, and took flight, taking Bill on a ride in the sky.

The townspeople gasped as Bill was carried away by this no-doubt angered hand. Bill saw the people get smaller and smaller in the distance and trees whizzed by beneath him. Finally, when Bill thought he could take it no longer, he saw another settlement, not one of humans though.

The Hand took Bill directly over the settlement and dropped him down into the middle of it. Bill brushed off his knees, and as he watched the Hand soar off into the distance he heard a powerful, commanding, yet feminine voice echo over the settlement:

"For the goddess!"

Well here it is, my first real fan fic. (Not like anyone has really been waiting for it.) I hope everyone knows what 'the Hand' is, and I also sincerely hope someone will review it with some constructive tips! I only wrote this so I could submit it to people who could help me out with my writing errors! If anyone likes this and reviews it, I will most definitely continue it!


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